Let us call Harry Lauder ftngal rather than mean. But
frugal he certainly was. A friend of mine once took his small boy to see the comedian in his dressing-room. As the two were leaving Lauder fumbled in his pocket, produced a penny and gave it to the boy, with the sage observation that if it were saved it would in time be worth threepence—at compound interest no doubt. The boy's father suggests that what was thought meanness was really sub-conscious fear of poverty deriving from the experiences of early days. From the same friend of Lauder's comes the reminder that Harry's success in the United States was due largely to the diligence and ingenuity pf his agent Will Morris, who secured him the indispens- able publicity by a variety of unorthodox and entertaining devices. But his own industry—he said once that he rarely staged a new song in less than two years from his first acquaintance with it—was clearly the major element.
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